


Silent Watching

by Bluelalue (ShinySilverMirror)



Series: Alunne Qestir [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Alunne doesn't use names with people, Alunne is tired of all of them already, Canon Compliant, Qestir WoL, Xaela WoL, Xaela headcanon galore, female WoL, no beta we die like men, timeline jumping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24088894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinySilverMirror/pseuds/Bluelalue
Summary: While others watch the Warrior of Light, she does as well and better then they can. After all observing others is a Qestir specialty.
Series: Alunne Qestir [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721101
Kudos: 2





	1. Disguises and how to counter them

Those who relied on words and tone of voice to convey themselves so much, well, they tend to not truly understand just how much they give away with their body and small tics they had no conscious thought over.

It was why she had almost ignored the Garlean acting as if he was a stranger when he pointed her towards the expedition to the tower that gleamed in the lands of Mor Dhona. She had gone, more due to curiosity and the fact such a thing would keep her away from cities and out of mind of even most of the Scions who may attempt to pile more upon her as they played with politics and words on their board game that used lives.

Why she was more upset over the complications brought about by the one who spoke in prophecies and riddles, then in shock when he had used himself to gain knowledge of the Warrior of Darkness. The dagger wielder had almost perfected the art of disguising, but the one that had possessed him did not have the same instinct to change posture and stance with the same ease, but back then she had not known him enough to fully see such for what it was. Yet, she had learned and made it a goal to know all those that could be taken in such a way. Memorizing postures and habits that another would not fully gain ease of with a possession.

It had taken hours of watching and unnerving those she watched, an effort she didn’t appreciate being belittled by the spy in his guilt over such happening to him before. Seeming to brush off what she was doing, and how much effort was going into such to make sure it did not happen again. The headbutt may have been too much, but the little sleep and stress from memorizing each distinct walk and movement pattern of the Scions had slowly taken a toll and it was a reasonable response if she had been home among her own people.

She learned far more about those that she was now surrounded by then she had initially wished to learn. Still leery of their mindset regarding how they may calculate her worth if whatever had given her this ‘Echo’ decided to stop making it useful to them. Yet the more she had watched, the more she had become...possessive of them in a way only her people and the Dawn Father created siblings could understand. They had become hers to watch over and protect in the same way Reunion was the Qestir’s to protect and manage. It was an attachment that could prove foolish in time if they measured her worth only by the power that had first gained their attention. Yet, it was a hollow comfort here in this realm so far from her own. Made it easier to connect to them as she learned their ‘dialect’ in regards to body language.

It had to be worth it. To know them so well to become attached meant none of those in those masks would creep back in using one that was hers to protect.


	2. Alphinaud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The child was a headache, but like all children you had to let them grow. She didn't expect to grow attached enough to see him as her youngling though.

It was only the fact the little Elezen stood and acted like a youngling that had likely stayed her hand in many instances during their first few months of knowing one another. Mostly as others were willing to curb the child in various ways when his curiously sheltered views overrode the intellect he possessed.

Alunne was still getting used to how these others raised their young into adulthood, and thus learning to curb instincts from cuffing younglings in Reunion when they acted up as she had learned early on from walking within the shaded boughs of Gridania, that her people would be seen as barbaric by many that now looked to her to help save them. The needed time and energy to attempt explaining in some way how the Steppes did not care of age or experience when it decided to turn harsh either in weather or in creatures that roamed its terrain. Or the stifling, to these people used to living right on top of one another in these villages and cities, isolation of the plains where it is you and perhaps a few others to rely on. No, it would take far too long to teach even one of these outsiders how the views of her people regarding young ones.

It didn’t mean there were not times she had not snatched the young scholar by the scruff when he was jumping too far into things, or nodding along when the Dragoon managed to say what she was thinking regarding some of the youngling’s decisions as they traversed to find out the truth of this ‘Dragonsong War’.

Not to say she was not fond of him. No, she had found herself slowly adopting the youngling in her mind. Testing him and letting him make his mistakes while being ready to defend him if things didn't turn out correctly. Indulging him in his fascination with the Dragoon even as he tried to bristle and prove his independence in the same breath as he murmured agreement to the advice hidden within biting tones and antagonistic words. No by the time she found herself becoming exasperatedly fond of the Dragoon and the Ice Maiden the youngling had wormed his way into her instincts and genuine want to see him reach a potential that was still rough edged and weaning from the sheltered life when struggles and loss were words in his books.

The scholar had so much change within him, his fool head just needs to survive to grow into his potential for such.


	3. Brother's Teaching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her brother had been a bowman, but he taught her more then just the bow.

There is no such thing as a truly steady hand…

Her elder brother had always scoffed at many of those who bragged about their aiming skills, and extolled the virtue of being ‘rock steady’ in their aim. He had kept her far from them when she had been given a practice bow at the age of ten and ignored fully when those self proposed experts would loudly extoll their version of how their way of learning the bow was best. She had obediently watched how their arms would strain and tremble as they tried to force themselves to be absolutely still as they knocked and aimed their arrows, to note the strain on their faces.

Then he had taken her out into the plains, still in view of Reunion. He did not give her a bow, but instead had placed her hand flat on top of a rock and motioned her to keep it there. She had been confused until she stopped focusing on everything else and felt the way the rock seemed to tremble slightly under her grasp. At first she thought it was herself and had tried to hold her hand completely still, but the rumble had stayed. Then it had vibrated wildly as a herd Dzo trundled along in the distance. Kicking up dust that swirled in the free movement of wind and motion of the beasts. It started to make sense to her then as she looked up at her brother as he silently watched the same scene while also aware of her movements as well. He had always been ever vigilant that way, and why he was so sought after for watch shifts on the hills overlooking Reunion.

They did this for several weeks, changing the location and even having her feet immersed in a creek and learning how to lean and hold her stance with the current as it tried to push her to follow the creek bed swollen with a recent rain. Then did he let her hold a bow, not with an arrow though. Had her learn how it felt and weighed in her small hands. To learn what each bit of tautness of the string felt and what it meant, as well as see just how much strength she still needed to be capable of bending a hunting bow back with ease and swiftness to allow her to be able to even sight something faster than a plodding old Dzo weak with age at the back of a calm herd. Had her sight with just her finger when she had gained enough strength from various chores, he made certain she was assigned in a rotating order, before making her take a turn at running errands from Reunion to other settlements to gain speed and stamina.

Many children from other clans had puffed their chests at being already learning to hit targets, but she and many others that had been shuffled under her brother’s keen eye did not really feel the need to be upset, as they saw how much the other children tired from holding their bows or how their arms shook from effort to draw even a single arrow and sight it. The older ones had nodded in approval, and even the less boastful of the adults had also acknowledged how well he had trained her and the others under his care when they soon became the ones picked first by the hunters to help them hunt smaller game.

She knew many of them had followed her brother into being members of the guard around Reunion in thanks, and had questioned her decision to leave the steppes, in search of things not even related to the bow. She’s certain some thought her ungrateful of what he had done, but the look he had given her as he had double checked her bag before walking with her to the boundary that was the Steppes and that which was just Outside for most of them, it spoke of more then others would understand.

She had taken the real lesson to heart. She would not try to pretend the world was stable when in fact that same world kept tumbling and swaying, she would only be pulled the way she wished to be pulled. That is what he hoped for her when he had shown her how to make herself find a way to bend with the world, while remaining upright and unbroken.


End file.
